While David Cameron waxes lyrical about how the Tories would be more careful with public money than Labour in these straitened times, spare a thought for his party chairman, Caroline Spelman, still under investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner over her employment at public expense of a constituency secretary/nanny to her children (secretaries can legitimately be paid for from Commons expenses; nannies can't).

With a final ruling now not expected until the end of January, colleagues are speculating that she may be headed for what one calls an "unsatisfactory acquittal" - ie, a ruling that there is not enough evidence (given that this happened a decade ago) to prove whether Tina Haynes really did secretarial duties or whether she was actually just looking after the children, and therefore there can be no clear grounds for action.

Friends say Haynes's version of events as given to the inquiry was also more helpful to Spelman than her original remarks to the media that she had once taken a phone message from William Hague.

Regardless of whether the outcome sheds new light on Cameron's claim this week that a Tory administration would avoid wasteful "foreign trips and office redecorations" and other abuses of taxpayers' largesse, the long drawn-out case is nonetheless creating a real headache for the Tory leader.

He is said to be anxious for a reshuffle to boost the Tories' stalled poll ratings and improve their case on the economy, but he can't do anything - promote talent, chop the deadwood (Theresa Villiers, shadow transport secretary, looks rockiest) or even think about a new role for Ken Clarke or other old-timers he is being pressed to recall — until he knows whether he will need to replace his chairman as well. The longer the inquiry drags on, the greater the frustration....